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Wednesday, 16 March 2016

Kurdish woman is shot dead at a wedding in Germany after refusing to marry her cousin

A 21-year-old Kurdish woman has paid with her life after she rejected an arranged marriage to her cousin who is now the prime suspect. Shilan was shot dead at a wedding ceremony in Hanover, Germany. Her father, Ghazi, posted a picture of her lying in a pool of blood on his Facebook page and is demanding justice.

He said that his Kurdish family had fled Iraq heading to Germany when his daughter was just three, and he said she had grown up as a self-confident young woman with German citizenship, studying property management at college in Hanover. Posting the images he added:

'It is with the deepest sense of loss and pain that I announce the loss of my daughter. She died in a pool of her own blood, as a victim of a treacherous tradition.'

He said that his two brothers, identified as Numan H. and Hassan H., had tried to arrange a forced marriage for the young woman to her cousin Sefin, 22, but she had refused. She told her father that she did not love the man she was supposed to marry, and rejected the suggestion.

He said that he had left his brother looking after his family including his daughter while he was working on a project in Iraq. He said that behind his back, his brother had decided to marry his son off to Shilan, and had already started to make the arrangements.

When he returned, he said: 'She begged me to do something and so I cancelled the engagement.'

The shooting took place at about 10pm on March 13. Police have a warrant for the arrest of Sefin, Bild.